Before
Spirits are up and I reckon we might get something from tonight's match but I'm not counting on it. If Villa are really going to be without Agbonlahor and Dunne, then that'll be a serious loss to them but they've still got plenty of very good players. I've always rated Carew, and Milner looked very dangerous when I was last at Villa Park. I suspect that the media statements that we may be without Mensah and Jones are a bit of kidology but if we had to be without one of them, I'd rather we had Mensah in tonight as he's shown his quality and recent results speak for themselves. If he doesn't make it, then I'd like to see Cana move into the back four as he's done so effectively before. Last night's match was very interesting and I was glad to see Mick McCarthy's side pull further out of trouble while West Ham are clearly in meltdown. I just hope they keep melting till we play them on 10th April though I'd rather they didn't go down in the end, and not just for accessibility to my home reasons. Match prediction 1-1.

The Match
As I got Radio Newcastle online, I was glad to see Mensah was playing and also that Henderson was in instead of Benjani while it's always good to see Catts there. I've been impressed with Meyler and am sure we'll be seeing a lot more of him. Gordon started where he left off on Saturday with two great saves early on and then Bent had the ball in the net but it was ruled out, dubiously, for offside while it sounded like Warnock had played him on. There was a blow for Villa when Heskey went off injured early on but that could only be good for us. We'd been largely on the receiving end for the first twenty minutes with Collins getting the better of Hutton when suddenly Richardson fed Campbell and that young goal sensation did very well to put us one-up. It just shows what a bit of confidence can do and though I admit I was starting to share the common belief that we'd made a mistake in signing him, he's proved me wrong. After half an hour the radio signal went off for twenty seconds and when it returned, Carew had levelled. For the rest of the half it sounded like we were holding our own, defending solidly on the whole and putting together a number of attacks with Campbell again sounding sharp. So, at the break I was happy enough with 1-1.

There were no changes as we kicked off again and five minutes in Mensah missed a great chance when his header was closer to the corner-flag than the goal but at least it showed up a huge gap in the Villa defence. We were living dangerously at times but by the hour-mark it was still 1-1 and there were sounds of frustration coming from the Villa crowd. With twenty minutes to go Da Silva came on for Mensah, who again had played really well and it sounded like he was taken off as a precaution. I'd play him every game even if he only played half of each one. Malbranque was repeatedly getting good mentions and I recently read somewhere that due to his long residency here he's eligible to play for England now. With the way he and Bent have been combining of late, it'd make for a more interesting World Cup. With ten minutes to go Cana replaced Steed and we were slowly getting closer to a very nice draw. Da Silva hadn't appeared for eight games but he was putting in a solid performance as was the much maligned, and often by me, Ferdinand. Three minutes of stoppage-time were announced and I was praying we wouldn't chuck it away as we so often have. We rode our luck on a couple of occasions and maybe that was because I believe Mike 'Beachball' Jones was one of the officials. It ended at last and we'd achieved a great result. This was a good all-round performance and it's like normal service has been resumed from where we left off at the Arsenal home game. I don't think we have anything to fear from Liverpool and if Jones returns, he can enjoy showing them what they didn't get.

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